Congress wooing Left is admission of its defeat: Raja

Attempts by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to woo the Left parties is "an admission of their defeat" in the elections, which would throw up a non-Congress, non-BJP alternative coalition, the CPI said today.

Attempts by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to woo the Left parties is "an admission of their defeat" in the elections, which would throw up a non-Congress, non-BJP alternative coalition, the CPI said today.

"This is an admission that Congress is losing. It is an admission of their own defeat," party National Secretary D Raja told PTI from Tamil Nadu.

Maintaining that the Left had supported a Congress-led coalition for four and a half years to prevent BJP from coming to power, he said, "The Congress was responsible (for the break up with the Left).... It betrayed the trust of the Left and therefore of the entire nation."

Raja said the Left parties had "serious differences" with Congress on several issues and the Indo-US nuclear deal was "only one of them".

"It does not seem at all that the Congress is doing any introspection as to why this relationship (with Left) was destroyed. It continues to pursue the same neo-liberal policies," he said.

The CPI leader said he was confident that the Left efforts to make a non-Congress, non-BJP alternative come to power at the Centre would succeed.

At a press conference, Gandhi said Congress and the Left had common ground on several issues and exuded confidence that the communists could support a Congress-led government.